Question: Does visual imagery have an impact on behaviour?
Answer: Yes. The senior lecturer in Psychology at Macquarie Urn in Sydney says, "If there was no relationship between what is modelled on the screen, and the behaviour of people, we would not have advertising campaigns."
Question: Can someone actually be enticed by the media to commit a crime of violence?
Answer: Yes. After researching TV violence for the last 30 years, George Gerbner of the University of Pennsylvania says, "Exposure to TV violence desensitises viewers to acts of violence and sometimes incites viewers to violence."
Question: But does media violence actually CAUSE violence?
Answer: Yes. Professor Andrew Simms, head of Psychiatry at Leeds University and past President of the Royal College Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom says, "Watching specific acts of violence has resulted in mimicry of behaviour that would otherwise, literally, be unimaginable." The American Psychological Society, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the U S Surgeon General all agree that media violence is "causing violence in society".
Question: Haven't we heard criminologists and other "experts" state that violent media has no effect on criminal behaviour?
Answer: Yes. We also have "experts" constantly quoted in the media who deny the link between pornography and rape, promote the lie of safe sex with a condom, etc. The truth is, Dr Brandon Centerwall, past president of the American Psychiatric Assoc, conducted a cross cultural evaluation of media as a causal factor in homicide and other aggression in the U.S., Canada and South Africa pre and post television. The American Journal of Epidemiology published his findings that "exposure to television violence is etiologically linked to aggression" in the same way that pornography is linked to rape.
WE CAN NO LONGER SAY, "IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE"
These quotes concerning the effect of violence in the media are taken from AFF's submission to the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Entitled "Suffer The Little Children", it was ignored by the Australian "experts" at the OFLC! It is important for u, to realise the horrific impact of media sex and violence on our society and take protective measures to stop further atrocities from occurring.